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ANGELA
M. HORNSBY-GUTTING |
Dr. Hornsby-Gutting's research interests include the early 20th century
South, African American gender identity, the Jim Crow era, women's and oral
history. Her current work employs feminist analysis to assess African-American
male identity and community building in North Carolina during Jim Crow. She
is also, within the same historical period, exploring constructions of romantic
love among African American southerners.
Professor Hornsby-Gutting
Office hours: T/Th 1:30-2:30pm or by appointment
Office: Bishop 303
915-5360
ahornsby@olemiss.edu
Fall 2009
His 339/Aas 362 African-American Women’s History
This course, an introduction to African-American women’s history, examines the epistemology of the field in addition to published scholarship on a range of nineteenth and twentieth century subjects, from the symbolism of Africa to meanings of work, health, community activism, and sexuality in the history of women of African descent in the United States. Through readings, assignments, and discussions, students will study this field in-depth, assessing its importance and how it complements or is distinctive from other fields of history. Class members will, by necessity, read widely so as to ground themselves in the history of African-American women, and to understand the diverse ways in which this history has been approached and understood by historians. By semester’s end, students should have become extensively familiar, and conversant, with this type of historical scholarship, and have demonstrated improvement in their reading, writing, and analytical skills.
*Required Readings:
Deborah Gray White, Too Heavy a Load, Black Women in Defense of Themselves.
Nella Larson, Quicksand
Chana Kai Lee, For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
*Note: Additional readings assigned will be available at J.D. Williams library, through course reserves or J-Stor (electronic resource, see library’s Articles and Database section). Also be aware that the schedule, as listed, is subject to some mild variation/adjustment during the semester.
Films: On several occasions, these sources will provide entry into the past.. Treat these as seriously as you do the readings. Take notes and be prepared to share your response.
Course Requirements: Your final grade will be determined by three short papers (2-3 typed pages), student-led class discussions/presentations, a midterm examination , a take-home final, class participation and attendance.
Class Presentations: This class’ “soul” is our discussion of issues raised by assigned readings; thus it is imperative that students complete reading assignments before class, taking care to critically evaluate the approaches and findings of the assigned works. For Thursday class meetings, beginning 9/2, students will contribute to our discussion in a structured way. “Discussion leaders” will organize, plan, and moderate discussion on any aspect of that week’s topic/theme. Leaders must ensure that class members have the opportunity to contribute to the discussion. Additionally, leaders should use any scholarly encyclopedia of black women [for example, Black Women in America, Notable Black American Women, Organizing Black America] or other biographical source (one internet source allowed) to record three entries relevant to the people, events, issues and concepts discussed that week. A short, typed report containing the entries and your reasoning for selecting them, should be turned into the instructor on the day of presentation.
Reaction papers – (3 papers worth 30% of final grade)
You will write three short papers on assigned readings, primary documents and/or films. Paper topics will be distributed a week before assignments are due. When addressing the paper topic, you should be able to analyze and relate the material to broader themes/issues examined in the class. As importantly, no outside sources, beyond those assigned for the course, may be used in preparing the papers. No late papers will be accepted except for emergencies verified in writing.
Attendance: Regular and prompt attendance is mandatory for the successful completion of the course. More than two absences (except for emergencies verified in writing) will result in a lower course grade.
*Course Evaluation:
Short papers (3) = 30%
Class presentation = 25%
Midterm = 15%; Take-home final = 15%
Class participation = 15%
*History majors, please note: Per registrar guidelines, “No grade lower than “C” may be counted toward the 33 hour requirement for the history major.”
Class Schedule: (The schedule, as listed, is subject to some mild variation/adjustment during the semester.)
Week 1, 8/25 Course introduction: Defining African-American Women’s History
Elsa Barkley Brown, “African-American Women’s Quilting: A Framework for Conceptualizing and Teaching African-American Women’s History,” Signs 14 (Summer 1989), J-Stor
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, “African-American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race,” in J-Stor.
Week 2, 9/1 Why study African American Women’s History?
Elsa Barkley Brown, “What Has Happened Here?”: The Politics of Difference in Women’s History and Feminist Politics,” in J-Stor.
Nell Irvin Painter, “Sojo urner Truth in Life and Memory: Writing the Biography of an American Exotic,” in http://www.nellpainter.com/assests/pdfs/articles/A29_SojTruthExotic.pdf.
Jennifer Morgan, “Some Could Suckle over Their Shoulder”: Male Travelers, Female Bodies,
and the Gendering of Racial Ideology, 1500-1770”, in J-Stor
Deborah Gray White, “Jezebel and Mammy: The Mythology of Female Slavery” in Ar’n’t I a
Woman? : Female Slaves in the Plantation South (1999, Revised edition), on reserve.
Kathleen Brown, “Engendering Racial Difference, 1640-1670 in Good Wives, Nasty Wenches & Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia, on reserve.
Sylvia Jacobs, “Give a Thought to Africa: Black Women Missionaries in Southern Africa,” on reserve.
Debra L. Newman, “Black Women in the Era of the American Revolution in Pennsylvania,” on reserve.
Mamie Locke, “From Three-Fifths to Zero: Implications of the Constitution for African-American Women,” on reserve.
Noralee Frankel, “The Southern Side of “Glory”: Mississippi African-American Women During the Civil War,” on reserve.
(T, 9/29 midterm. Please bring a short bluebook to class)
Elsa Barkley Brown, “To Catch the Vision of Freedom: Reconstructing Southern Black Women’s Political History, 1865-1880,” in African American Women and the Vote, 1837-1965, Ann D. Gordon and Bettye Collier-Thomas, eds. (1997), 66-99, on reserve.
Leslie A. Schwalm, “Sweet Dreams of Freedom’: Freedwomen’s Reconstruction of Life and Labor in Lowcountry South Carolina,” on reserve.
White, Too Heavy A Load, Chs. 1-3.
Elsa Barkley Brown, “Womanist Consciousness: Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of Saint Luke,” Signs, J-Stor.
Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, “Discontented Black Feminists: Prelude and Postscript to the Passage of the Nineteenth Amendment,” on reserve.
Gail Bederman, “Civilization,” the Decline of Middle-Class Manliness, and Ida B. Well’s Antilynching Campaign, on reserve.
Audrey McCluskey, "We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible": Black Women School Founders and Their Mission,” Signs, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Spring, 1989), J-Stor .
Beverly-Guy-Sheftall, “Black Women and Higher Education: Spelman and Bennett Colleges Revisited,” Journal of Negro Education, 67 (Fall 1982), J-Stor.
White, Too Heavy A Load, ch..6
Chana Kai Lee, For Freedom’s Sake
Cynthia Fleming, “Black Women Activists and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: The Case of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson” in America: History & Life database.
Sharon Harley, “For the Good of Family and Race: Gender, Work, and Domestic Roles in the Black Community, 1880-1930” in J-Stor.
Tera Hunter, “Domination and Resistance,” in America: History & Lifedatabase
Too Heavy a Load, Chs. 4-5.
Darlene Clark Hine, “Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women in the Middle West: Preliminary Thoughts on the Culture of Dissemblance,” Signs 14 (1989), J-Stor.
Week 13, 11/17 Gender, Race, and Sexuality
Nella Larson, Quicksand
Hazel Carby, “It Jus Be’s Dat Way Sometime”: The Sexual Politics of Women’s Blues,” on reserve
THANKSGIVING BREAK – Nov. 23-27
*(Take Home exams will be distributed)
Patricia Hill Coliins, “The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought,” J-Stor.; also Too Heavy a Load, ch.7/epil.
His 606 African-American Women’s History
This course examines the epistemology of the field in addition to published scholarship on a range of subjects. Through articles and monographs, students will study African-American women’s history in-depth, assessing its importance, how it complements or is distinctive from other fields of history, and how this history has been approached and understood by historians. Each week of class, except for the last, will involve discussion of a book. Scholarly articles will also be among readings surveyed. Course participants will lead class discussion during the semester, and submit, via Blackboard, thoughtful responses to the readings. Submission of a major research paper (30-35 pgs) or historiographical paper (15-20) addressing conceptual/theoretical issues within the field, is also required.
Telling Histories: Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower Edited by Deborah Gray White
Stephanie Camp, Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South
Tera Hunter, To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors after the Civil War
Michele Mitchell, Righteous Propagation: African Americans and the Politics of Racial Destiny after Reconstruction
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920
Victoria W. Wolcott, Remaking Respectability: African American Women in Interwar Detroit
Stephanie J. Shaw. What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers during the Jim Crow Era
Maxine Leeds Craig, Ain't I a Beauty Queen?: Black Women, Beauty and the Politics of Race
Ruth Feldstein, Motherhood in Black and White: Race and Sex in American Liberalism, 1930-1965
Chana Kai Lee, For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
Jennifer Nelson, Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement
Kimberly Springer, Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968-1980
Leading Discussion
Each student will lead discussion of a common reading. That person will compose a list of eight to ten questions that address the major themes and issues raised in the work. By Monday, the discussion leader will provide the instructor, via e-mail, the list of questions, however tentative they may be. By Wednesday afternoon, the discussion leader will have distributed (via e-mail) the final questions to the class. To enhance conversation and debate, you may use handouts, film, printed images, etc… as part of your presentation. Additionally, discussion leaders will submit a 2-page, double-spaced summary/critique of the primary reading at the start of class. The response should summarize but also comment critically on specific portions of the text. This could include its style, organization, sources, methodology, identify similarities or contrasts in other works surveyed, etc…
Blackboard reflections
To generate more sound discussion and debate, class members, effective September 2nd, will submit, via Blackboard, written comments about some aspect of each week’s readings prior to class. These reflections, rather than exist in isolation, should generate further commentary during class. Each class member – absent that week’s presenter – thus should not only post their reflection on Blackboard no later than Wednesday, but also read what others are thinking of the scholarship being examined.
Final Project – Historiographical or Research essay
Select an aspect of African-American women’s history that interests you and do outside reading (e.g. scholarly books and articles) on it. The subject you choose can be topical or conceptual. If you are doing original research, you will need to delve in both secondary and primary sources. The paper need not address subject matter discussed in class. Your findings will then be summarized/analyzed in either a historiographical (15-20 pg.) or original research (30-35 pg.) paper.
Grading
Class Participation – 25%
Oral Presentation -- 20%
Written Critique – 10%
Blackboard reflections– 20%
Final Project [15-20 page], or research paper – 25%
Attendance
It is expected that you will be at every session, though circumstances may arise when you are unable to attend. Excessive absences will adversely affect your final grade.
Aug. 27th – Course introduction. Defining African-American Women’s History
Sept. 3 -- *Elsa Barkley Brown, “African-American Women’s Quilting: A Framework for Conceptualizing and Teaching African-American Women’s History,” Signs 14 (Summer 1989): 921-929, in J-Stor.
*Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, “African-American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race,” in J-Stor.
Telling Histories: Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower Edited by Deborah Gray White
Sept. 10 – Stephanie Camp, Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South
Sept. 17 -- Tera Hunter, To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors after the Civil War
*Elsa Barkley Brown, “To Catch the Vision of Freedom: Reconstructing Southern Black Women’s Political History, 1865-1880,” in African American Women and the Vote, 1837-1965, Ann D. Gordon and Bettye Collier-Thomas, eds. (1997), 66-99, on reserve.
Sept. 24 -- Michele Mitchell, Righteous Propagation: African Americans and the Politics of Racial Destiny after Reconstruction
Oct. 1 [No class]
Oct. 8 -- Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. Righteous Discontent: The Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920
*Darlene Clark Hine, “Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women in the Middle West: Preliminary Thoughts on the Culture of Dissemblance,” Signs 14 (1989). Available on J-Stor , J.D. Williams Library
Oct. 15 -- Victoria W. Wolcott, Remaking Respectability: African American Women in Interwar Detroit
Oct. 22 -- Stephanie J. Shaw. What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers during the Jim Crow Era
Oct. 29 -- Maxine Leeds Craig, Ain't I a Beauty Queen?: Black Women, Beauty and the Politics of Race
Nov. 5 – Ruth Feldstein, Motherhood in Black and White: Race and Sex in American Liberalism, 1930-1965
Nov. 12 – Chana Kai Lee, For Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
*Cynthia Fleming, “Black Women Activists and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: The Case of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson” in America: History & Life database.
Nov. 19 -- Jennifer Nelson, Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement
[Nov. 23-27 – Thanksgiving Break]
Dec. 3 – Kimberly Springer, Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968-1980
(and, time allowing, New Directions in African-American Women’s History (?) )
1.) Essays from the Journal of Women's History Volume 17, Number 1, Spring 2005
Flood, Dawn.
"They Didn't Treat Me Good": African American Rape Victims and Chicago Courtroom Strategies During the 1950s
Johnson, Joan Marie.
"Ye Gave Them a Stone": African American Women's Clubs, the Frederick Douglass Home, and the Black Mammy Monument
1.) Essay from “Silences Broken: New Directions in African American Gender History, Porter Symposium, University of Mississippi, Fall 2005
Chana Kai Lee, “Toward a History of African American Women, Trauma and Violence: Some Notes on Lethal Intimacy and Black Woman Subjectivity.”
